The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art, and Music Drive New York City

In detailing the inner workings of New York's creative industries-ostensibly to demonstrate what policymakers ignore when their appreciation for art begins and ends at the museum-urban planning Ph.D. Currid gives readers an eagle-eyed look at the networking mechanics of the art-as-business crowd. Colorful description abounds, as do colorful characters, such as ""petite, personable"" Claw, who ""has clothing lines with Calvin Klein and Ecko, and is the fashion editor for the indie magazine, Swindle,"" as well as ""one of the most celebrated female graffiti artists of all time."" Using Claw's success to illustrate ""three important characteristics of the cultural economy""-""unique and symbiotic"" inter-industry relationships, rapid commodification of cultural goods and multiple streams of self-generating buzz-Currid is at her lucid best. Unfortunately, the policymaking conclusions she draws are weak; Currid doesn't get very far beyond admonitions to stop ""shutting down nightclubs"" where the art community connects and instead to support, publicly, ""ways in which this artistic and cultural environment is reinforced."" Funding for cultural organizations such as GenArt are discussed, as are tax initiatives and artist living subsidies, but Currid doesn't take into account the examples of other cities, like Providence, RI, that have already taken such steps; thus, Currid's blanket statements about the state of urban affairs, and her vague recommendations to improve it, aren't nearly as convincing as her vivid cultural reportage. 25 halftones, 22 line illus.